So much negativity about jobs in manufacturing and other industry’s at the moment, that those that have been doing it tough for a while are even more confused and despondent about where their future jobs may be, if at all.

This stark reality prompted Anthony Tilly of RadioWest 1098 to want to chat about Future Careers and where those on Western Australia’s wheat-belt may be able to look  and what to tell their kids.

Without downplaying the hardships many sectors are undergoing and will undergo, we are in the throws of an industrial revolution, changing products, industries and jobs on a mass scale. Nothing good can nor should be said about the unemployment, angst and issues this causes, nor does the reality that we have done this before in previous generations make it any easier, but as always there are jobs and employment over the horizon.

Australia is working from a position of 94% employment, and without politics attached in the last 2 years we have put on just over 2 million jobs (ABS), put on 8 jobs for every 1 lost in manufacturing and put on 5 service jobs for every 1 lost and have a health related industry that employs 1.4 million people and growing (IBIS World).

The digital world has also opened up a transparent, always on and geographically agnostic marketplace and this is part of the solution for the wheat-belt and other geographically remote areas. Websites like Etsy,  allows anyone to sell art and craft to anywhere in the world; EBay a broader range of products; AirTasker to make local people aware of your desire to undertake 1 off jobs for them and tons of others.

These are not mass solutions, but they do speak to a changing employment world, one in which the individual is more likely to become entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, changing jobs and careers as the need to upskill, be promoted, earn more and seek new challenges, where 6 careers and 14 jobs in one employment lifetime are the norm, as is working into our 70’s and 80’s.

The road ahead is different from the one we leave behind. Many of the known employment landmarks are no longer visible, but there will be new ones ahead.

Some jobs and careers will continue the same as they are now, some will change dramatically, some will fall away and other will rise, but we will work in the future, we will have careers and jobs, what will change and has always changed is what they are, the way we do them and where they are are.

Take a listen to the interview now and let me know what careers and jobs you believe are future proof.